﻿Frof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 341 



the sea cuts its way back inland, large quantities of these valuable 

 elephantine remains become exposed. Along the Siberian rivers, 

 but especially along the Obi and Lena, immense numbers of these 

 remains have been found. The Kussians tell one that they are 

 often in such preservation that the natives eat of their flesh. Some 

 of the Jakutski and Tungusians who collect these bones obtain 20 to 

 SO roubles (£3 to M 10s.) per pood (401bs.) for them. 



The skeleton of Bytina Stelleri, of which the only other example 

 is to be found in the Museum of Helsingfors in Finland, I could 

 not find in the osteological collection to which the general public 

 have access. On explaining my wants, I was treated with every 

 kindness, and given facilities for seeing all I wished. The skeleton 

 for which I was looking, together with many other skeletons, is kept 

 in a chamber below the ordinary floor of the museum, which in. 

 appearance is not unlike a store-room. 



The skeleton, which represents an animal more than 25ft. long, 

 is not altogether perfect, for the hand bones, if it ever had any, are 

 lost, and also one or two of the caudal vertebras. A portion of the 

 large gristly palate with which the creature was provided is also 

 preserved. The rough transversely furrowed surface of this, which 

 answered the purposes of mastication, is very curious. In places 

 where the ribs had been cut into for purposes of examination, 

 they showed a fine white texture very like ivory. This specimen 

 came from Behring's Isle, which in times past appears to have been 

 its central if not its only home. About a hundred years ago it was 

 sacrificed, like the Great Auk and many other animals, to the gluttony 

 and wants of man, and is now to be regarded as one of the links be- 

 tween the past and present so often referred to by geologists at the 

 commencement of their labours and historians at the end. 



In the same room as the one in which Bytina Stelleri is standing 

 I had an opportunity of taking a passing glance at the skulls of some 

 European and Asiatic Beavers. There are many animals inhabiting 

 the Old World which bear the same name as those in the New World. 

 This has arisen from their general similarity in outward appearance. 

 Identities of this sort have been brought into question by naturalists, 

 who, after various examinations, have found certain differences to 

 exist between many American species on the one hand and Asiatic 

 and European species on the other, and the question apparently to be 

 decided, is whether these differences are sufficient to constitute a differ- 

 ence in species. The case of the Beaver was one that was especially 

 brought before my mind during my travels in Newfoundland, where 

 my companion, Mr. T. Gr. B. Lloyd, made a careful study of it, 

 and subsequently followed it up with the assistance of all such 

 material as could be found in the Museums of Great Britain. 

 The result of the comparisons as made, not only by Mr. Lloyd, 

 but also by various other investigators, seems to lie in the re- 

 lation existing between the length of the nasal bones and the skull. 

 Why the rest of the framework of the animal was not taken into 

 equally minute consideration I do not know, unless it was from the 

 fact that such material was more difdcult to obtain. Mr. Lloyd's 



